Message from John Wyatt, President

🌅 Access to and participation in Arts and Culture in all forms is a key part of positive mental health and wellbeing and to creating well connected and socially cohesive communities.

🏗 The Mayfair Arts and Culture Centre will be a place for everyone in Kaikōura to create and experience a wide range of arts in a way that we have never been able to do before, right here in our own community. Because this project is therefore so important, we took some steps over the last 2 weeks to anticipate the current shutdown so that, if it is only 4-6 weeks, we will be able to open as close as possible to the scheduled mid- November date.

🔨 What we have done: We have advanced some ordering of things like seats, drapes and screens, so that we are in the “Supply Chain Queue”: The site has been made safe and completed works protected ( to secure the investment already made) : We have ongoing discussions with funders to ensure funds will continue to be made available and submitted applications processed : In addition, we will be working through with our main contractors to see what changes and enhancements can be made to the project programme to minimise the impact of this delay.

This wonderful Kaikōura Community has endured loss and isolation following the 2016 earthquake and now faces difficulty and isolation of a different sort. I am keen to ensure that we all have something special to look forward to, to enjoy and to lift our spirits as well as renewing and strengthening the bonds in our Community. I can therefore promise that we will be doing as much as possible to bring this fantastic new facility to life as soon as circumstances allow. In the meantime, be kind to yourself, your loved ones and wider whānau. Let’s all ensure that we follow the instructions so that not only do we keep this lockdown period to a minimum, but that we beat Covid-19 together. Noho ora mai ra, Kia Kaha, stay healthy, stay safe, stay strong.